5 U THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
sequences. If the doer is unsocial, his " good " will be society's 44 bad," and there will be nothing for it but to convert him or control him. But, if thoroughly fit for fellowship, he will appraise consequences to others at par, and so the sanction of consequence will lead him to follow a social line of conduct. The mother in doing for her children, the Samaritan in helping his neighbor, the patriot in serving his country, is guided by results. In fact, whoever heartily shares a common life will act devotedly with the joint welfare in view. In such cases we recognize the change of venue to conscience as a lapse and a sign of decay.
The looking within for sanctions is the way of the under- socialized person. Far from being a badge of perfection, it is a mark of defect. When the <2//*r-feeling is faint or when we push beyond the confines of our corporate sense, we get deadness to consequences and the leaden sense of obligation. The resort to inner justification, therefore, reveals the boundaries of one's socius. It belongs to frontier conduct. It prevails in the debata- ble ground between whole-souled concern and whole-souled indifference. Here springs that effortful, inward-looking right- eousness that rigorists term " virtue," and adopt as the model and type of all goodness whatsoever. 1 Teutonic peoples, strong in character, but weak in imagination, tend, it is true, to inward reference ; but Latin peoples, with a livelier social sense push along the social car without so much reflection. In times of change or peril the clumsy system of inner reference yields to disinterested action, springing from esptit du corps, fellow- feeling, and loyalty. But for the fixed relations and stereo- typed offices of a settled social life, there is nothing better than the habit of reference to a well-primed conscience. // is one way of getting right action in default of social feeling.
Let us now probe the reigning moral psychology. This century has been marked by the eager exploration of human
1 KANT insisted a good action must proceed " from respect for the law." Hence SCHILLER :
" Willingly serve I my friends, but I do it, alas, with affection, Hence I am plagued with doubt ; virtue I have not attained."
